


Two roads diverged

by mackleman_writes



Category: X-Men (Movies), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-15
Updated: 2014-08-18
Packaged: 2018-02-08 22:20:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 10,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1958208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mackleman_writes/pseuds/mackleman_writes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Violet was always an average girl. She wasn't anything special, she thought. Not until her mutation emerged and flipped her entire life upside down. Charles Xavier recruits her for his School, but she soon learns he's hiding more than one secret from her and has to decide; stay with him, or join the Brotherhood of Mutants?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Ten more minutes. Only ten more minutes, then Violet would be free. The teacher's lecture about isolating the variable would be cut short by the bell and she could finally get out of this dumb school for the weekend. She anxiously drummed her fingers on the desk and couldn't stop her eyes from flicking at the clock every thirty seconds. The worst part of it was the fact that the teacher was calling on students in order of their desks to go up to the board and demonstrate what she'd been teaching(which Violet hadn't been listening to, of course) and it was getting dangerously close to her turn. She was fairly certain that this could count as some sort of sick psychological torture. 

After what possibly could have been years the bell rang and Violet sped out of the classroom, down the hall, and to her locker. She didn't really have anything that was particularly exciting to do, but just getting out of school was enough enjoyment for her.

She gathered her books and hurriedly threw them in her backpack. Around her, people were coming to their friends' lockers before stopping at their own to gossip about the day's activities. Violet had a couple of friends, but she'd never done that before. The group wasn't really close, they were just the people who didn't have any other friends in the school so they had to hang out with each other so they didn't look weird.

Finally, after loading up her backpack with books, she set off down the crowded hall, smiling at people(even though she didn't know them, it probably made her look nice, she figured) just damn relieved to leave.

She walked home, even in the winter months, so she made extra sure to wrap her scarf around her as tightly as possible and snuggle into her pink down jacket before braving the walk back home. Violet loved winter. Everything about it was lovely to her. the way big fat snowflakes came down in what could only be a magical way, the intricate designs of frost on a window pane, the wreaths..It was so wonderful.

Violet stepped outside, breathing in the crisp winter air. She was lucky- hurrying had helped her catch a view of the fresh fallen snow before everyone else came out and trampled it. She headed down the front steps of the school carefully. The last thing she wanted was to fall down on the icy steps.

She took her time, enjoying the snow in all it's glory. She'd have to go to a park or something later to get some good pictures.

Her reverie was interrupted when a group of rambunctious upperclassmen bustled out of the building behind her. Oh well, she sighed, she'd have many other days to enjoy the snow. Violet turned down the street and began to trek home. While she walked, she thought about her plans for the weekend. Mainly browsing the internet, maybe a bit of reading here and there. Just like every other weekend, of course.

To her surprise the group of seniors started to trail behind her. There was only a couple of students who lived down this way and even though there was an ice cream shop open all year round down this way it wasn't very popular in the winter months.

Violet tried to relax; they were probably just out to admire the snow too. They weren't planning to attack her or anything. God, she hated how suspicious she could be.

She turned down the road to her house..only to have them continue follow her. She could hear them giggling and whispering.

Even though she tried to keep her mind off of it, Violet really wanted to turn around and see if they were staring at her or something, but obviously then they'd know she knew they were following her and that'd just start whatever they were planning to do to her faster.

The chill started to get a little too cold for her liking and she started to speed up a bit and to her horror the group of kids hurried up as well.

"Hey! Violet, right?" One of them, a boy, called out. Violet felt her heart drop into her stomach. 

Violet turned around and looked at them, trying to look bored. "Yeah."

"Why'd ya run out on us so fast, huh?" A girl spoke up this time. Violet had seen this group before but she wasn't really familiar with them..or their reputation.

"Uh..I wasn't under the impression you were waiting for me." Oh, slay 'em, Violet thought to herself.

"Oh, of course we were, we wanted to talk with you." A second girl who appeared a bit nicer than the rest(which still wasn't very nice) spoke. The entire group kind of inched towards Violet, circling around her like a bunch of vultures.

"Uh...about what?" Violet stuttered and stepped back. She'd never talked to these people before, what could they possibly want? She wasn't doing their homework for them, if they thought they could bully her into it. She wasn't even in the same grade!

"Have you ever..done anything strange?" Another, one with a bunch of piercings and a short haircut and therefore an unidentifiable gender questioned.

"I don't think so?" What sort of strange? She wanted to ask. There was a lot of strange things that could have been done by her.(She wasn't saying she did it, but she had done some pretty freaky things before and was worried they had found out about it.)

The first girl, a brunette, rolled her eyes. "Nothing? Nothing at all? Nothing strange has ever happened when you get mad or upset?"

Violet simply stared at them. Was this girl implying she was some sort of freak? Like..a mutant? What was wrong with this girl?!

"I-I'm not- What are you saying?"

"I think you get what we're saying, Violet. We've noticed you're different." The second girl said.

This time Violet took a couple steps back. "You guys are crazy. I'm not..different."

"We aren't crazy!" The boy growled. "We know you're a mutant. We can tell."

Panic overwhelmed Violet. She wasn't a mutant. Mutants weren't even real!

"I'm not a mutant. I'm not! A-and don't run around spreading your l-lies to everyone!" Violet tried to sound harsh and threatening, but she sounded more scared than anything.

"Listen to us! We're trying to help you!" Brunette snapped. Violet began to turn around- she'd had enough of this. This was probably some sort of stupid prank.

"Cam, stop her," Brunette girl hissed behind her back, and suddenly a loud buzzing sound filled Violet's ears. She tried to resist and run away, but the sound was overbearing and pretty much paralyzing. She fell to her knees, covering her ears with her hands in a desperate attempt to block out the sound, but the sound only got stronger. It burned into her brain, each note ringing over and over, blocking every other thought out of her mind except for "stop". She couldn't stand it- if she had to listen to the noise for much longer she knew she'd go crazy.

"Stop.." Violet mumbled. The noise got louder. "Stop," She spoke, a bit more insistent this time, and when the noise only continued, she yelled. "STOP!"

And then, the buzzing ceased. It was gone. She turned around back to the gang, who were staring at her. The person named Cam, the one with the piercings, had their face scrunched up like they were still trying to make the buzz. Their hands were outstretched, and their fingers were curled up like claws towards Violet as if trying to force more waves of the sound towards her. "H-how did you...no one has ever been able to..."

Violet stared at Cam. Her friends were all watching in awe. She didn't understand; was this part of their prank? She couldn't have actually stopped Cam...could she?

 

There are two things people do when they're in a dangerous or threatening situation: Fight, or flight. You've got a 50% chance of guessing correctly which option Violet chose before reading the next chapter.


	2. chapter 2

Violet ran all the way to the end of the street, near the intersection, and turned abruptly into her house. She was in such a hurry, she didn't even notice the strange black car in the driveway. Violet slammed the door behind her, panting, and hurried up the stairs, ditching her jacket and scarf haphazardly on the stairs. She could explain what had happened out there, right? Maybe Cam just got overworked and had to stop. Wait, did this mean mutants were real?

"Violet, where are you going?" Her mom called from the living room. "Didn't you see we have a guest?"

Violet stopped in her tracks. Guests? Seriously? Right now all she needed was a little bit of alone time to organize her thoughts, not have to force a smile and charm some adults. She wished she could just ignore her mother and keep going upstairs to the safety of her room.

She groaned softly and headed back downstairs.

"This is Violet." Mrs. Pape smiled tersely at her daughter who approached a bit begrudgingly towards the spotless living room.

"Hi.." Violet smiled shyly. There was a young-looking man wearing a very dapper suit sitting on the couch, looking slightly uncomfortable. The man had brown hair cut short, and piercing blue eyes. Even though he seemed a bit anxious, he smiled nonetheless.

"This Mr. Xavier. He's from a..school. A special school," Mrs. Pape was obviously failing at trying to sound confident. A school? Violet sat down on the white loveseat next to her mother."And he's come to offer you a scholarship." She added tersely.

"Uh..okay.." Violet wasn't sure she trusted this man. Just, out of the blue, scholarship? It had fishy written all over it. How did he even find out about her? It wasn't like her grades were stellar.

She felt his eyes burning into her with curiosity. Violet tried to avoid eye contact with him. He was really weird... the way he stared at her was like she was naked and he was picking apart every flaw. Freaking weirdo.

"Why? I, mean, why did I get a scholarship? Do I have to go?" Violet questioned. Next to her her mother shifted. Violet looked up at her, curious and worried at the same time. Mrs. Pape's eyes were filled with anxiety, though her painted lips were curled up in a tight smile.

"Violet..this is a once in a lifetime chance. I think you should go. This..school sounds like it has more to offer than your current school." Mrs. Pape rubbed her daughter on the shoulder reassuringly. Violet noticed that her mother's voice had become a tone higher than usual, which only happened when she got really upset.

Violet stared at her mother, then towards "Mr. Xavier". If that was even his real name. "I still don't understand why I got this scholarship, anyways."

Mrs Pape glanced towards Mr Xavier, who nodded at her. "It's okay. She'll have to find out eventually, right?"

Find out what? Violet wanted to scream. What was this big secret? She began to speak but her mother cut her off.

"You have the x-gene, sweetheart..Which means that you're a bit different from other kids your age. You just have abilities they don't.It's okay, your father and I love you no matter what, but we've decided that the safest option for you is to go with Mr. Xavier to his school." Violet's father didn't get off of work until 5.. wait, they must have discussed this before! How could they!?

"You knew? You knew I-I'm a freak?" Violet sounded like she was on the edge of hysterics. She didn't want to be a sideshow freak! Breathe in, breathe out. She needed to calm down and think this through with a rational head. It would be best to go with this strange man. But..how could she be a "mutant"? She didn't even have powers! Those kids who ganged up on her earlier probably already knew that she was a..a mutant-it was hard to say it, the word was just so foreign- and probably spread it around by now. Part of her, though, still wanted to just act like nothing had happened in the past 24 hours.. but that couldn't happen.

"Well..shit..I don't even know what I can do." Violet looked down at her hands.

"A lot of mutants' powers develop late. We've known about you for awhile now..but your mutation hasn't really emerged. Which is good..and bad." Mr. Xavier spoke calmly. He probably had to do this a lot, Violet figured.

"At the school you'll be with some other children with the x-gene, people like us, and they can help you come into your powers. If they come in and you're not in a safe environment..well, things could be bad." Mr. Xavier continued. She noted he said "like us". What was his ability? What separated him from humans?

"Uhh...well, uh..I guess that's a good reason for me, uh, to come to your school, then, huh?" Violet shrugged in a way that she hoped was nonchalant. She just wanted everything to go back to normal..but did she? She only had a couple friends. It hurt to admit it, but they probably would hardly notice she was gone. The only exciting thing for her was going on the internet and reading. There was nothing but her parents tying her down..and they wanted her to leave. She didn't want to hurt them either if her powers were dangerous.

"I guess it can't hurt to try..I mean, I can come back if I don't like it, right?" She asked.

"Of course!" Mr. Xavier seemed to be delighted she was considering it.

"Uh...so..when do I leave?"

\---------------------------

Violet's face was smushed up against the chilly glass. She was snoring as the car pulled up the gravelly driveway. What a great first impression.

"Violet. Violet!" Charles shook her awake. "We're here."

"Mmmph?" She mumbled and rubbed the sand out of her eyes. "Where..?"

"At the school." Charles said and shook her again harder as she almost fell asleep again.

"Oh uh what?' Violet sat up quickly. "Oh, sorry."

"It's fine. C'mon, there are some people waiting to meet you." Charles shut off the engine of the car and jumped out.

Violet climbed out too, and stared in awe at the huge..castle before her. That was the only word she could think of to describe it, it was so huge. It was beautiful, like something you'd see in a film about ye olde England. The freshly fallen snow and twinkling lights only made the scene more picturesque. Violet couldn't wait to see the interior, it was probably just as extraordinary as the outside, maybe even better. Near the front door, a tall man in a beige sweater was standing, waiting for Charles and Violet.

"That would be Erik. He didn't want to come because the last time we left the kids alone..well, to put it short, it didn't end well." Charles explained.

"I see." Violet replied, still taking in the mansion as they walked up to the porch. Wait, what had the kids done? Hopefully they weren't like that all the time.

"Hello, Violet. Nice to meet you." Erik stuck out his hand and she shook it. He looked scary. The menacing German accent didn't add much to his cause. Violet was pretty sure he was secretly a bad guy or something. "Nice to meet you too." Violet smiled.

Charles ushered her inside and followed behind her. Violet nearly had a heart attack- it was huge inside! And just as gorgeous as she'd envisioned it.

She was so busy taking in the glory of the mansion she didn't even notice the group of teens peeking out from behind a doorframe, trying to get a new glimpse of their new classmate.

"Shoo! Get out of here, ya filthy vultures!" Charles waved the kids away, smiling. "You'll get to harass her at dinner." There was a collective groan and the whole group trudged off.

"This place is so lovely." Violet sighed. "Uh, so, where will I be sleeping? Are there like dorms or something?" Just then she remembered she left her bags in the back seat of the car.

"We'll have Raven show you around after dinner..and don't worry, we'll send someone out to get your bags later." Charles chuckled.

"Before dinner, you might wanna go get, uh, freshened up." Erik added, gesturing at her head.

Oh yeah. Violet forgot about falling asleep in the car. She must have crazy bedhead. Well, windowhead.

"Oh, right. Where's the bathroom?" Violet blushed.


	3. chapter 3

Violet really wished that Charles and her had stopped for McDonald's on the way down. With everyone asking her so many questions, she hadn't been able to eat any of her spaghetti yet. And it looked delicious.

"Wait, so you don't know what your powers are?!" Raven, the blonde girl with long hair, asked for what must have been the third time. Or at least, Violet thought she was Raven. She could remember names that well, but not faces. For example, the dorky boy with glasses next to Raven wasn't Sean, but she couldn't remember if he was Alex or Henry.(The only reason she remembered who Sean was because he looked like he was a leprechaun with his short curly ginger hair and freckles, and Sean was probably the most Irish sounding name she'd ever heard.)

"No.. not really.." Violet pushed around the pasta on her plate. She felt like a child compared to everyone else here who'd known about their powers since they were around 12.

"That's so weird! I've never heard of that before," Raven responded. Funny, I distinctly remember Charles telling me that "a lot of mutants come into their powers late". Violet thought to herself. It was like putting a fifth grader into calculus.

"Yeah." She didn't know what to say. This was her chance to shovel as much spaghetti in her mouth as possible, and Violet did this without getting too much sauce on her face.

"Maybe tomorrow an take you down to the danger- I mean, training room, and see if we can get anything." Alex-or-Henry-with-the-glasses said without looking at her. "Dude, it's her first day here. Come on." The other Alex-or-Henry, the one with blond hair, rolled his eyes. Violet decided she liked him.

"Well, yeah, but everyone else is gunna be down there. What's she going to benefit from just watching?" Glasses boy fired back.

"Uh, not getting killed because she doesn't have powers to protect herself?" Blond dude threw his hands up in the air.

Hank and Alex continued fighting, and Violet kind of blocked them out. She guess she'd just find out what the desicion was when she came to it. No one else was fazed by the two quarreling, so she figured it was a regular thing.

"So..what are you guys' powers?" Violet calmly asked. She had to raise her voice up over Henry and Alex's to be heard.

Sean was just about to open his mouth when Erik barked "NOT AT THE DINNER TABLE!" and then continued his hushed conversation with Charles

Raven smirked at him. "You remember what happened last time, don't you? We were picking glass out of our skin for days. Anyways, I think we should wait and show Violet our powers tomorrow, so we look cooler when we're in action using them!"

Sean looked slightly saddened but still nodded.

After everyone had finished eating-Violet took the longest which was really embarrassing- Raven lead her around. She showed her around a bit upstairs, and they didn't quite get to everything because it was so large, but Raven assured her they'd have time tomorrow.

"So this is your room." Raven tapped the door in front of them. "That one down there is mine, and farther down is Hank, then Sean, then Alex." She gestured down the hall to each of the rooms respectively. "If you need anything, you should probably come to me first because I don't trust anyone else here. Well, maybe Hank, but, you know what I'm saying." Raven chuckled. Raven was starting to grow on Violet.

"Well, uh, goodnight!" Violet smiled. Raven waved at her, and headed down the hall.

Violet opened her door and smiled happily when she saw her room. It was similar to the other ones, except the colors in this one were mainly pastel pink and orange. The bedspread on the canopy bed was a nice sunshine yellow and the canopy matched it. Violet sat down on it, then remembered she was still in her skinny jeans and she hadn't brought her clothes in. She groaned..but then remembered that Charles had said he'd get someone to bring in her stuff for her. She hoped he'd came through with that.

Violet got up and checked the dresser..and yup, everything she'd packed hurriedly earlier was in the drawer and folded. She grabbed out some pj pants and a ratty old black tee shirt and quickly changed.

She sighed, content, and hopped into bed, and was startled when her stuffed rabbit met her under the covers.

"Wow, whoever it was that brought this in really did a thorough job, huh?" Violet patted her rabbit and moved him out of the way. Seeing it reminded her of her parents. It hadn't been long since she'd last seen her mother but there was already a longing in her heart for the familiarity of her own bed.

She turned off the lamp on her nightstand, noticing the picture of her and her parents placed on it, and snuggled right down into the duvet. She felt like a princess with the sheer curtain draped elegantly around her bed. Violet longed to be home, but she was also a little bit intrigued by this strange place. Maybe she'd be able to fit in. Maybe, just maybe, she wasn't wrong about coming here. 


	4. chapter 4

Bam! Bam! Bam! fire shot out of Violet's hands at the dummies and they burst into flames. Everyone was watching her, incredibly impressed. Needless to say, Violet was excited that her power had come in so quickly, and so powerfully. She smiled at everyone, and they cheered her on. Alex especially looked proud of her..

He moved closer to her, and as he approached, she realized that she'd been mistaken. He wasn't Alex. It was Luke Hemmings! That silly boy must have been disguised as Alex in order to protect his super secret pop star identity!

"Hey baby," Luke said in that husky voice of his. "I need you to do something for me, baby."

"Anything for you, Luke.." Violet said in a breathy tone.

"I need you to kiss me, asap, baby." His minty fresh breath was hot on her face. It was kinda beautiful.

Violet didn't bother to respond and simply kissed him. They kept kissing, for a very long time, probably for what was unhealthy, until Luke pulled back, looked at her, and turned back into Alex. He put his hands on her shoulder and looked her right in the eyes. Violet screamed a little scream.

"Do you think we should wake her up?" Alex whispered to her.

"Don't! She had a rough day yesterday." Alex spoke again, but this time his voice was high pitched and kind of sounded like...Raven's?

Slowly, the dream started to melt away. Violet wasn't in the training room, she was in her new room, snuggled into her bed. Peeking into her room from the crack in the door was Raven, Alex, Hank, and Sean, who was eating a bowl of cereal.

"..Mmmm?" Violet sat up and brushed her tangled brunette hair out of her face. Alex and Raven did not notice that she was awake, they were too busy fighting with each other in what Violet guessed were supposed to be "hushed" whispers, but Sean and Hank grinned at her when she sat up.

"Gooood morning!" Sean said, impossibly cheerful for this early hour of the morning. He nudged the door open a bit and sauntered in while stuffing his face with more spoonfuls of cereal. "You missed breakfast, so I saved you some!" 

Violet sincerly hoped he wasn't talking about the bowl of cereal he was eating out of. Sadly, Sean sat down on her bed and tried to hand her the bowl but she pushed it back to him and said kindly, "You can keep it."

"Finally! It's like, ten a.m.!" Alex threw his hands up in the air. 

"Ignore him! He's just impatient cuz he wants to look cool!" Raven laughed. "We usually hit up the danger room earlier than this but we figured we'd be nice and wait for you to get up so you don't miss anything."

"Nice," Alex mumbled. "That's rich, coming from you."

"Hey! Let's stop wasting time and let's head out then!" Violet threw her legs over the side of the bed and stood up. She stretched her arms and then put her hands on her hips. Raven seemed like she wanted to pursue the quarrel with Alex, but Violet butted in. "Come on, guys, I'm really excited to see your powers!"

Raven got distracted, and smiled at Violet. "All right! Wow, this sure is a nice change." She pushed past Alex a bit roughly and he rolled his eyes and then followed her.

Hank trotted after them like a lost puppy-poor kid-and Violet followed him. She noticed out of the corner of her eye that Sean had subtly left his what was now probably a soggy bowl of cereal on her nightstand. It kind of bothered her but she didn't want to start another fight.

"So this is the danger room! Well, training room is it's official name." Raven pointed out the window that was facing a large room, covered in steel that had scorch marks and dents in it everywhere. There were a couple of scratches on it that surprisingly looked like claw marks everywhere too, which made Violet understand just why it was called the danger room.

"Ah, Hank, did you figure out whether Violet is going to get a turn in the danger room or no?" Raven turned to ask Hank, who had somehow snuck up behind her and Violet. He'd been focused on staring at Raven(well the back of her head) and he seemed to be surprised that she was actually adressing him. 

"Oh! Uh, I asked Charles and Erik about it, and they said they'd let everyone else warm up and let her watch before they explain the activity they've got planned for us." Hank explained, his blue gaze flicking back and forth between the girls. 

An activity? Like..a game? Thought Violet. She was probably going to lose horribly. She didn't even have the same blue and yellow uniform that everyone else was wearing, she was still in her pajamas!

"Okay! Great! You can just stay here, then, Violet, if that's okay, and we'll come back and get you later!" Raven grinned. Violet nodded shyly.

Everyone else crowded into the danger room while Violet remained behind, watching them from behind the window. Alex looked kind of nervous and kept running his hands through his hair. The longer she looked, the more nervous everyone looked. Hank kept adjusting his glasses and shifting his weight around from leg to leg. His uniform was bigger than everyone else's, too. What a dork.

The foursome stopped and seemed to discuss something with each other, then Alex headed out to grab four mannequins. When he came back he lined up three of them against the wall, then placed one all the way down the hall in the middle.

Sean pushed his way to the front of the group and rubbed his hands together. He flashed a grin at Violet and then opened his mouth and let out a high pitched noise which made Violet yelp and cover her ears. Sean laughed lightheartedly and headed back to the group. The mannequin had slammed back up against the wall with the force of Sean's-noise? scream?- and it's head had came off. She wondered if it'd do the same to a human.

"My turn!" Raven laughed(Violet was a pro lip reader.)

She stood directly in front of the window and grinned at Violet. And then..suddenly..Raven wasn't the blonde she'd been before. She was blue! She had patterns all over her body that were stunning and her hair was now about shoulder length and red. And then..it wasn't a blue Raven that was looking back at Violet, it was Violet staring back at Violet!

She-the real Violet- leaned closer to the other Violet with a look of wonder. She looked exactly like her, right down to the freckles on her cheeks! She was also a little concerned, was she really that fat?

"Ah, Violet, I figured you guys would be down here." Twice in one day had people managed to sneak up on her!! Violet turned to look at Charles.

"Oh, yeah! They're just showing me their powers!" Violet said excitedly. "I see." Charles waved at Raven. 

"I think it's Hank's turn next." She turned back to the window. Hank wasn't there, though? "Or not."

She turned back to watch Alex, but a movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention, and she moved to see Hank, hanging upside down! 

"How does he do that?" Violet asked Charles. Maybe he had some sort of anti gravitational powers- 

"He has prehensile feet. Kinda like, well, it's sort of crude but a monkey," He explained to her when he saw the look of confusion on her face. 

"Ooohhh." Violet sighed then glanced at Alex, who was getting ready to..do whatever his power was.

Hank, Raven, and Sean bustled into the little room off of the danger room where Violet and Charles were. 

"Alex's mutation is..less controllable than ours," Raven spoke, edging up next to Violet.

Violet nodded and watched Alex. He began to concentrate, and little red rings began to form around him, connecting at the target looking thing on his chest. Alex's hands were curled into fists at his side, and now the rings were beginning to become more than faint lines. He grunted as the rings all came together, formed one unified blast and shot straight for the target. Well..not really straight for the target. More like, a little to the left of the target. It hit the wall, and somehow it caught on fire. Violet had a feeling she knew how all the scorch marks got everywhere now.

"Crap, crap crap, crap," Alex hurried over to grab a fire extinguisher that was sitting by the door, and ran over to spray it at the flames.

Violet had a feeling that this had a feeling that this happened a lot.

Once he finished putting out the fire he had accidentally started, Alex headed into the side room everyone else was in.

"That was a bit better than last time, Alex! You're..err..really getting fast at grabbing that extinguisher!" Charles clapped his hand on Alex's shoulder.

"Gee, thanks." Alex grumbled and sat down on a bench.

"You guys' powers are all so cool!" Violet smiled at everyone. "I hope mine turn out to be as cool as yours!" 

"We might be able to figure out what your powers are with our next exercise." Charles said. He had a mischevious glint in his eyes that told Violet this little "activity" was going to end badly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you aren't familiar with Luke Hemmings, he's in a band called Five Seconds of Summer, you should check them out cuz they're great!


	5. 5

Capture the flag? Was Violet's first thought. In these old pajamas? Okay, maybe thinking about what she was wearing wasn't the first thing that she should be worried about. What she should have been focusing on is a) strategies on how not to die b)how she should beg her team mates into saving her dumb butt or c) what illness she should fake to get out of this torture.

"Yes, yes, capture the flag, it won't be too bad. We'll have two teams.. Alex and Violet on one team, and Sean, Hank, and Raven on the other." Charles made eye contact with each member of the group as if a bit unsure of his descision. "That's even, right..? Wait, no, that won't do at all, what am I thinking? Raven, you'll be on their team too." He changed his mind and Violet was glad, oh so very glad. A girl who didn't even know what her own powers were with a boy that could hardly control his own? How cliche. Gimme a break.

"Yeah, that sounds good," Violet hurriedly agreed. Raven was probably a kick ass fighter anyways.

"So obviously, the goal is to capture the other team's flag, which is placed at the ends of the court. You have five minutes to come up with a strategy to get it." Charles said in a hurry. "Starting...now!"

Hank and Sean ducked into a group as Alex, Raven, and Violet did the same.

"It's obvious what they're gunna do. Sean's going to scream at us to try and distract us, while Hank slips past us and grabs the flag. It's typical." Raven spoke, her blue eyes focused on Alex. "So what you're going to do is bumble around and shoot lasers at Hank while-"

"They aren't lasers. And I don't bumble around." Alex indignantly interrupted.

"Are you done? Can I continue now, you baby?" Raven growled back. "Anyways, while he's doing his thing, I'll kick Sean's butt into next week. Violet, you go after their flag."

She nodded. Violet was delighted to have such an important role, but also frightened. She was probably going to mess it up and be embarrassed.

"All right everyone! Hope you're ready because I certainly do not have time to watch all of you-"

"Erik!" Charles nudged him, who had apparently decided(more like was forced, Violet thought) to show up and watch too.

"What he was trying to say is, let the games begin!" He opened the door that led off into the danger room and ushered everyone in. "Raven's team, that way." Charles pointed to the farther end of the chamber and Raven and her team jogged down that way. Violet nearly tripped as she rolled up her checkered pj pants in an effort to keep them out of the way.

She took a nice safe spot behind Raven, angled away from Alex just enough so that she wouldn't be in the blast zone. Across from her, all the way at the end, Sean was rolling up his sleeves and Hank, poor, poor Hank was struggling to see without his glasses. At least he was smart enough to know that they would probably have gotten broken.

Charles inspected that everyone was on the correct teams and was about to speak when Erik whispered something in his ear. Charles stared at him for a good moment then shrugged and turned back to his students.

"On the count of three! One..two..."

Violet and Raven looked at each other. Raven seemed excited and ready to go, whereas Violet was about to cry.

"Three!"

Suddenly, Violet had no idea what the heck was going on. Sean was screaming, things were suddenly on fire, and Hank was on the ceiling. It was all so confusing, she stood there for a couple of seconds trying to take everything in before remembering her mission; to capture the red flag.

"Violet! Go!" Raven yelled and sucker-punched Sean in the stomach so hard that his high pitched scream became low, guttural, and less damaging to everyone else's ears.

"Right! I'm on it!" Violet yelped and started to dash over to the flag. She would have made it in record time, had it not been for Hank unexpectedly dropping from the ceiling right in front of her!

Violet stumbled backwards, though managing not to fall, and stared at Hank. He looked awkward in his crouch trying to block Violet's path. He wanted her flag, she wanted his. Neither could live while the other survives...wait, wrong story.

"Hank, don't make me do this!" Violet yelled over Raven and Sean's sparring and Alex's grunts.

"Do what?!" Hank threw his hands up in the air. "You don't even know what your mutation is yet!"

Violet knew in her heart what she had to do. She could feel Charles and Erik's gazes burning into her back, and knew they wouldn't be very proud of her for what she did. Well, at least Charles wouldn't be. She couldn't be too sure about Erik, though, he seemed a little unorthodox.

Using all of her force Violet kicked Hank in a spot that made him sing in c-minor and then dodged around him as he fell to the ground. Violet was sorry for what she did, she really was, but now was not the time for penance. She had a job to do!

With each step she took she grew closer and closer to the flag. Soon, all she had to do was reach out her hand and she would have it, her team would win and she didn't even use her mutation! Violet's fingers brushed the pole and she was just about to claim victory for the blue team. She turned around to smile at her team, but when she looked behind her everything fell apart.

Behind Raven who was bent over Hank(checking for a pulse?) Alex had lost all control of the beams shooting out his chest and now he really was bumbling around trying to get control over his powers. The beam coming from his chest was shooting at random things haphazardly, and almost as if it were from a movie, time slowed down and Violet watched with wide eyes as Alex accidentally started to turn to face Raven and Hank.

Her first instinct was to run in front of them, to protect them from harm, but she remembered that day in the snow. Had it really only been yesterday? When she focused hard, Cam's brainwave blast had been cut short. Maybe she could do the same with Alex, and not get hurt herself..but what if it failed? Violet asked herself. No, she thought. She would not accept failure. She had to save her friend.

Violet closed her eyes tightly and made a mental image of Alex's blasts disappearing.

"Stop." She spoke, trying to sound confident like in the snow.

Violet bit her lip, hard enough to make it bleed, but she had to block out the pain and focus only on this. Pain radiated from her temple and she stopped breathing in order to focus..but suddenly, everything was right. She could feel Alex's powers. It was sort of like she was in his head, but still in her own at the same time, like some new age type stuff you read online. Violet could feel his emotions, each one was a string that lead to another deeper and rawer emotion. Violet wondered if she could control his powers from here in his head..it felt like controlling a horse, very complicated and very dangerous, but if you did it right the results were amazing.

At this point, Violet couldn't tell if it was her own heartbeat she was hearing or if it were Alex's. It was like they had become one being, in tune with each other. Well, almost, Alex was confused, reluctant, and terrified, but Violet was in control now and his feelings couldn't affect his mutation. Violet forcefully pulled the blast back into her/Alex, then she was catapulted back into her own body.

Then everything went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! Sorry I haven't updated in awhile, I've been sick and haven't really been feeling inspired enough to write. But here's the next chapter, finally!! :D Also, here's a drawing I did of Violet, I hope you guys like it!: http://supehstar.deviantart.com/art/fanfic-cover-473092254


	6. Chapter 6

When Violet woke up, she was laying on some sort of cot. The light from an overhead bulb blinded her, and she groaned and covered her face with her arm in a poor attempt to block it out.

"Violet? Are you awake?" A groggy voice asked. Violet turned her head sideways to see Erik sitting in a chair near her cot, with a book written in German in his hand. He'd made himself rather cozy with a pillow and a gingerale Violet had a sneaking suspicion that was meant for her.

"Oh..uh..yeah..I guess.." She mumbled. The last thing Violet could remember was being in Alex's head and then blacking out. "Raven!" She yelped. And Hank! Had they been injured? Violet tried to sit up quickly but stars burst in front of her eyes and she felt more than a little nauseous. Maybe she could manage lying down for a bit more before trying anything too edgy.

"They're fine," Erik said nonchalantly. "Thanks to your..little...whatever it was you did out there. Alex is still freaked out about it."

"Oh.." Violet blushed. This was good, right? She knew what her mutation was now- some sort of weird demonic possession type thing. Fun. At least she was able to save her friends from her other friend.

"Right. Anyways, it's late, about 4. Charles took a peek in there and said it was best to let you sleep so we didn't wake you up for food or anything." He took a sip of the gingerale through the straw. "Plus I figured waking you up only to have you swarmed by everybody else wouldn't be very nice."

Four? She'd gotten up at, like, 11! I really must have pushed it. Violet sighed and managed to sit up, this time more slowly. "Thanks for that." She rubbed her eye.

"No problem." Erik said curtly and returned to his novel.

Violet and Erik sat there in silence for a couple of minutes. It wasn't awkward..just peaceful.

"I think I'll get going then..I'm sure Charles already knows I'm up." Violet sighed. She still had traces of a headache.

"All righty then." Erik said without looking up from the book he was reading.

"I guess I'll see you around then." Violet threw her legs over the side of the bed and reluctantly stood up.

"Mhm." Erik flipped a page.

She looked at him for a second, then turned around and walked out. He was kind of strange. But a good strange.

The hall was empty when she walked out, she was fairly certain that Raven had shown it to her briefly on her tour. If she followed this way a bit farther she'd end up near the big staircase, across from which was the hall with everyone's rooms. Violet decided that it'd be a good idea to stop by her room and get changed(she was still in her pjs.)

She headed down the hall, past Sean's room. She immediately recognized this for the mistake it was when Sean came running out of his room as soon as she passed. "Violet!" He yelled, probably alerting everyone else in the entire damn mansion that she was awake.

"Hello, Sean," She smiled weakly.

"We thought you were dead!" Sean sighed melodramatically.

"Violet?" Hank popped out of his room. He looked a little wary; Violet didn't blame him. Their last encounter was a little less than friendly.  
"Hi Hank," Violet rubbed the back of her neck. "Where's Raven? And Alex?" Might as well make sure they all knew she hadn't died yet.

"Raven's having a super secret meeting with Charles right now.." Sean and Hank gave each other a glance that held something Violet didn't know. "Alex is in his room right shouldn't bother him."

"Wait, what are Raven and Charles talking about? How come they get to be so chummy?" Violet asked. She knew Sean and Hank were hiding something from her, she could just tell from the way their eyes kept shifting back to one another.

"It's a long story..too long to tell right now, in fact. You hit your head earlier so telling you all of this information will overload it and confuse you, and um-"

"Hank, are you honestly trying to get me to stop asking questions with your science-y crap?" Violet snapped. She did have to admit that her head was still hurting a little though.

Hank sighed and ran a hand through his floppy brown hair. "Listen, Violet, we're not supposed to tell you. We'll get in trouble. But I can tell you that it's very important and I'm sure they wouldn't appreciate you interrupting them."

She harumphed. She'd find out what they were talking about some time or another.

"You know what'll take your mind off of it?" Sean patted Violet on the shoulder. She looked at him, slightly interested.  
"One word, my friend. Snacks!"


	7. Chapter 7

After Violet, Sean, and Hank had filled themselves with snacks, they hung out downstairs for a bit and watched television, during which Violet got around to apologizing to Hank for earlier. (They laughed it off, but she still felt a little guilty about it.)

Sean crashed on the couch at around 7. Hank blamed it on the sugar. By that time, Alex hadn't come out of hiding, and Raven and Charles were still talking about whatever they were talking about.

"Do you think we should, like, move him?" Violet asked Hank, who was still munching on some trail mix.

"No..I think he'll get mad at us if we accidentally wake him up." He said in between handfuls of the snack.

Violet made a little "mmph" noise and tried to focus back on the TV. The show was some boring sitcom that was clearly a poor imitation of friends, a show Violet didn't really care for in the first place. Hank was engrossed in it though, so that left out any chance of Violet starting a discussion with him. She really wanted to ask him about her powers; did she look cool when she was using them, or constipated? How exactly did they work? She didn't remember going into Cam's head like she did with Alex. What was up with that? Did fear fuel her power? Could she do more than just manipulate the mutations, could she stifle them completely?

A voice interrupted her thoughts. "Violet! You're awake!"

She turned around to spot Raven standing in the doorframe; Charles however was nowhere in sight.

"Oh, hi Raven!" Violet smiled at her and Raven trotted over and managed to squeeze herself in between Violet and Hank on the floor.

"I was really worried about you! You hit your head pretty hard when you fell." Raven said. Next to her, Hank was looking more nervous than usual. He so liked Raven.

"Oh, yeah..I'm fine now, though!" Violet answered Raven.

Raven smiled. Violet took note of how her eyes kept flicking over to Hank. "That's good. I'm glad we have another girl around here."

Violet thought about how un-fun it must be to live alone with a bunch of boys-especially Sean- and she shuddered. Though, she did remember Charles saying something about a girl named Moira. He seemed to be quite fond of her. She was planning on asking her about it, but Violet could sense that Raven wanted to be alone with Hank right now.

"You know, I'm still kinda tired...I think I'll head up to bed." Violet did her best fake yawn and rubbed her eye like a child.

Raven sighed. "Aw..well, I'll see you tomorrow then." The way she spoke in a hurry it was obvious Raven wanted her to go so she could be with Hank. Violet didn't care; she'd want to be alone with her crush too.

Violet stood up and noticed Sean sleeping on the couch. She'd forgotten about him. Oh well, he was Raven and Hank's problem now.

"Good night!" Violet said as she turned to walk out of the room. Hank offered a "goodnight" and Raven did the same.

She smiled at both of them before heading into the foyer, where the staircase that led her to the rooms were. Violet was sure she could reach her room from another way, but tonight was not the night to get lost in the mansion and get stuck there until someone noticed she was missing.

She was heading down the hall to her room when Alex's door practically flew open and slammed her backwards to the ground.

It took her a couple of seconds to comprehend what happened. Two head injuries in one day? God.

"Geez, dude..I'm sorry I was in your head but really? That was just low.." Violet groaned. She felt her nose and when she pulled her hand away she was a little less than shocked to see it covered in blood. The perpetrator stood in front of her looking horrified. Had his plan not worked? Was he aiming to kill her?

Alex kneeled down next to Violet. "Aw, shit, Violet! I didn't think anyone was out here!" His brows were furrowed and his hands couldn't keep still like he didn't know what to do with them.

Violet stared at him. "You just slam doors like that all the time? Who even does that? And why?" She could hardly keep her voice from being shrill.

Alex ran his fingers through his short flax hair and blinked rapidly. "Violet, come on. You know I wasn't trying to hurt you. Get up and I'll help you clean up."

She was a little suspicious, but he looked-annoyed? Tired? She couldn't put her finger on it, but she could tell he was being serious. He offered a hand to her, and Violet used it to help herself up. His hands weren't soft, but they weren't so rough as to call them calloused. Violet kind of dug it.

He silently lead her to the bathroom where she sat down on the toilet-lid covered, of course. Alex pulled out a washcloth and got it wet while Violet watched.

Alex squatted down in front of Violet. "Okay, I'm going to touch it."

Before he could say "Don't freak out", Violet had burst in with a shriek: "Don't!" Her brown eyes were wide with fear.

Alex rolled his eyes. Why were girls such babies? "I'll be gentle, stop moving." He tried to sound reassuring.

"No! Alex, please, don't!" Violet looked and sounded like she was on the edge of tears. She tried to push him away, but he was too strong.

"Stop moving! It's going to hurt if you keep moving!" Alex growled.

"Please Alex, Do-" Violet's plea for mercy was cut off when she burst into laughter and stopped resisting Alex's attempts to wipe the blood off of her face.

Alex was confused and stopped trying to clean Violet's face. He took a moment to think about it; about what they were saying and how it could have been taken out of context. "No, Alex, don't!" and "I'll be gentle" were one-liners straight out of Casa Erotic. He couldn't help it, it was pretty funny. He sat right down on the floor and started laughing too. They kept laughing, in fact, until Violet was in tears and Alex was gasping for breath.

"I hope no one heard that.." Violet snickered.

"Yeah, we'd have a lot of explaining to do." Alex chuckled.

Violet took this opportunity to study him. He had amazing cheekbones. Seriously, they could probably cut Violet if she touched them.

Alex spoke again. He seemed to have noticed her staring at him. "Uh..can I clean you up now? Or will you freak out?"

'Violet exhaled. "Of course..but seriously, be gentle."

"Of course." Alex smiled, one of the first real smiles Violet had seen from him.

He sat back up, so he was squatting back in front of her again. She tried not to wince as he dabbed at the base of her nose, where a little blood was still coming from. The dried blood was a little more difficult to get off, and with this he was rougher, but as long as he didn't knock a tooth out Violet could stand it. He looked up at her occasionally to see how badly he was doing.

"There..does it still hurt?" He asked once he was finished.

"You slammed my face in a god damn door, Alex." Violet felt like that was a sufficient reply. Her entire face was throbbing right now.

Alex sighed and set the cloth down on the sink. He avoided eye contact with her as he said, "Uh, yeah, sorry about that..I really was not expecting anyone to be out there."

Violet could tell he was telling the truth from the way his cheeks were glowing red. "It's all right." Yeah, she was still a lil pissed. He seemed to be genuinely sorry for it, though.

Her eyes dropped to the floor. Violet wanted to say that she was sorry for going into his head. It'd felt intimate, and quite frankly inappropriate for two people that only met the day before. She couldn't bring herself to say it, it would ruin this. Violet still had to figure out the depth of what she'd done herself, it was too soon to talk about it with Alex. She put it in the back of her head to contemplate further on later.

When she looked back up at Alex, he was already staring at her. "You..um..okay? You look, uh, sad or something.." He rubbed the back of his head.

Violet smiled. Stupid, dumb emotionally constipated boys. "Nah, I'm just tired. " It was true. She'd gotten more beat up today than she had..well, ever.

Alex was pleased with not having to talk about emotions and girly stuff. The traces of what could almost be called a smirk graced his lips. "Maybe you should head to bed then..Maybe you could sleep off the pain."

Violet smiled and stood up. "Yeah." She was pretty sure she would sleep later than she had this morning.

"Thanks for cleaning me up, Alex." Violet grinned. "And thanks not so much for hitting me with your door."

Alex shrugged. "Anytime!" He opened the bathroom door and headed out. Before he did, he made a little salute type thing.

Violet headed out after him and was glad Raven wasn't in sight. It'd be suspicious for two people to just leave a bathroom together, right?

"Goodnight, Violet." Alex waved to her before heading to his room.

Violet wondered if there was a mark on the door from her face.

"Night," She called after him, and headed back to her own room, where she immediately jumped in bed. A quick sniff reminded her of Sean's abandoned bowl of cereal that still remained on her nightstand. She moved to the other side of the bed in a poor effort to avoid the rank smell.

Her head was pounding, but it didn't stop her from getting lost in her thoughts as she fell asleep. She thought about Alex, and what it was like to be inside of his head. The raw emotions, the fear. It was all so..intense. She wasn't sure if she could ever do that again. The more time passed, the harder it was to believe that she'd actually done it...She was really a mutant.

And mutants really did exist.


	8. Chapter 8

In the morning, Violet stayed in bed for awhile after waking up. Luckily, today, no one came in to wake her up unexpectedly, but she had to deal with Sean's cereal, which she could only stand for about half an hour before trudging downstairs to dump it in the kitchen sink.

After getting rid of the nasty cereal she headed towards the dining room, where everyone else was gathered around the table talking. Everyone looked up at her, apparently excited to see her.

"Violet! We've been waiting for you!" Charles grinned. He seemed to be excited about something and when Violet got closer she saw a navy and yellow uniform on the table, like everyone else had worn yesterday. There was also a grey hoodie and matching sweatpants folded up next to it.

She glanced at them, then back to Charles. "Are these for me?"

He nodded. "The suit was originally for Moira, but she said it wasn't really her style. The sweatshirt and pants are what we usually wear for training." He glanced over at a blushing Raven. "Yesterday was an exception, of course."

Violet nodded. They weren't too bad. The sweats looked a little uncomfortable but she was sure she could deal.

"We were going to wait and add some stuff to it to make it more adjusted to your power, like Alex's or Sean's, but we didn't really think of anything that would help." Charles shrugged.

Yeah, there wasn't much really that would help with getting into people's minds.

"We all have special secret code names, too," Sean butted in on the conversation. He was eating a bag of chips and sitting back in a chair with his feet up on the table. "They're like..superhero names. Mine's Banshee, cause, well, you saw yesterday."

"Yeah! We need to think of one for you," Raven said. "Mine's Mystique...you could be, like, The Possessor!" Raven was pleased with herself for coming up with this and Violet felt bad for having to tell her that that name sounded like the title of a cheesy scary movie.

"I think it's a bit soon to be thinking about names and stuff..I mean, I've only ever actually used my mutation properly once.." Violet added on in order to preserve her feelings and took a seat in between Raven and Charles.

"That's true." Raven nodded and thought for a bit. "What was it like?"

Violet blinked. "What was it like? In Alex's head?" Across the table from her Alex shifted awkwardly. She looked over at him, but he wouldn't meet her eyes. Ah. So he was just as uncomfortable about it as she was.

Hank sat up straighter. "Yeah, tell us!" His blue eyes were sparkling like a boy on Christmas. It couldn't hurt to tell, right? Hank could use it for his research. And anyways, Charles and Erik looked interested too.

"Okay...well..uh," Violet began a little less than confidently. She decided to keep her story more focused on her, not Alex, and leave out the creepy part where they'd been like one person. "At first, I was gunna, like run in front of you guys, but I thought of something else that had happened before by accident..it's a long story. So..I stopped and put all my focus into stopping Alex, because that's what pretty much happened the other time. And then, suddenly, I was in his head. I couldn't read his mind, really, but..I guess I could feel his emotions." Violet paused; was that too much? She looked at Alex who had obviously been staring at her, and he turned his head as soon as their eyes met.

"Keep going!" Hank begged. He was just enthralled with this, wasn't he?

Violet tucked a strand of her honey colored hair behind her ear. "And..I was in control, pretty much, and somehow I knew what to do. I just, like, pulled the blast back into him and then I guess I blacked out."

Alex rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, you threw me back a couple feet. I've still got the bump to prove it."

Violet felt guilty; she didn't know about that. She was glad he wasn't mad at her- though she wondered if getting hit in the face by his door last night had anything to do with it.

Her face heated up and she felt a little dorky as she apologized. "Sorry..I didn't really know what I was doing.."

Alex rolled his eyes and smiled. It wasn't quite like the beam from last night, but it was still nice to see him smile.

"And that is where we come in." Charles grinned confidently and leaned over the table a bit. "We're going to help you hone in on your power."

Violet noticed that Erik looked a little intrigued, which was a nice change from the whole evil emotionless psychopath thing he had going on.

Hank sent Charles an unreadable look, and Violet wondered if they were communicating telepathically. Charles furrowed his brows and looked a little concerned but nodded. "I agree, Hank." He turned back to Violet. "What Hank was telling me, is that he believes you're a type of telepath. We can't be sure yet..but it's just a thought. We'll have to study you and your power more."

A telepath? That's kinda cool, Violet thought to herself. She wanted to practice more now that she was thinking about it, but she wasn't sure she could do it again. It'd really worn her out last time.

"Yeah, we were gunna go to the training room later," Alex said. "I mean, after Sean gets his in between breakfast and lunch snack, of course." (Sean giggled.)

"I'm kinda hungry too, come to think about it," Violet replied and frowned. Last night's meal of cheetos and raw hot dogs hadn't really been fufilling. And sleeping probably burnt 1000+ carbs, so there was that to think about, too.

Erik, who'd been sitting there quietly the whole time, butted in and stood up. "You guy's have got twenty minutes to eat, then meet Charles and I in the danger room, starting-" He checked his wrist, where there was no watch, "-Now."

Upon hearing this Sean 's chair flew backwards and he darted into the kitchen. He was really serious about his food. And now, it seemed like Violet was done getting the special new student treatment. She wasn't sure how to feel about it..at least, she found a place where she finally fit in.

author's note: hey guys! First off, thank you for reading my story <3 <3 Second of all, I'm having a contest to see who can come up with the best superhero name for Violet!!  
The winner recieves a shout out on my page for probably about a month, kudos on all your works and a drawing of whatever you like, though keep in mind my drawing skills aren't that great. I'll hopefully have a winner by the time I post the next chapter!!


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